Eli5 How did the morbidly obese guy(Angus Barbieri) who fasted for one year not lose all of his lean body mass(muscles)? Does the body actually work to preserve muscle mass and not break it down when fasting as a morbidly obese person?

Question

Eli5 How did the morbidly obese guy(Angus Barbieri) who fasted for one year not lose all of his lean body mass(muscles)? Does the body actually work to preserve muscle mass and not break it down when fasting as a morbidly obese person?

In: 41

Answer 1

There are a lot of replies here, but nobody has actually answered the question. OP wasn’t asking about where his energy came from, they was asking how a specific person fasted for over a year and didn’t lose all of his muscle mass. Many amino acids (what is called “protein” on a nutritional label) are essential… which, by definition, cannot be produced by the body.

According to the wiki page, he consumed yeast, which supplied him with the essential amino acids that his body could use to maintain muscle mass:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angus_Barbieri%27s_fast